Newly Released Internment Camp Photographs

With all the furore over the travel & immigration suspension Order and the claims for reparations, I thought now would be an appropriate time to spare a thought for the alternatives, in particular, the internment of the Japanese citizens during the second World War. Here we have a people most of whom were actual legal citizens of the USA, rounded up and placed in dreadful conditions in the name of safety & security.

These photographs were initially ceased by the Military and placed in the National archives until 2016 and were taken by Dorothea Lange who was actually employed by the US Government to take photographs of the evacuation and relocation of Japanese-Americans in 1942. Despite being against the whole project, Dorothea agreed to do it as she felt an accurate record of this event was essential for future generations. So here are some of the collection with statements from citizens involved.

“We couldn’t do anything about the orders from the U.S. government. I just lived from day to day without any purpose. I felt empty.… I frittered away every day. I don’t remember anything much.… I just felt vacant.” Osuke Takizawa, Tanforan Assembly Center, San Bruno

The Moohida Family awaiting evacuation with their numbered tags. No names were used people were reduced to just a number

“As a result of the interview, my family name was reduced to No. 13660. I was given several tags bearing the family number, and was then dismissed…. Baggage was piled on the sidewalk the full length of the block. Greyhound buses were lined alongside the curb.” — Mine Okubo, Tanforan Assembly Center, San Bruno

“We were herded onto the train just like cattle and swine. I do not recall much conversation between the Japanese.… I cannot speak for others, but I myself felt resigned to do whatever we were told. I think the Japanese left in a very quiet mood, for we were powerless. We had to do what the government ordered.” — Misuyo Nakamura, Santa Anita Assembly Center, Los Angeles, & Jerome Relocation Center, Arkansas

“We went to the stable, Tanforan Assembly Center. It was terrible. The Government moved the horses out and put us in. The stable stunk awfully. I felt miserable but I couldn’t do anything. It was like a prison, guards on duty all the time, and there was barbed wire all around us. We really worried about our future. I just gave up.” — Osuke Takizawa, Tanforan Assembly Center, San Bruno

“We walked in and dropped our things inside the entrance. The place was in semidarkness; light barely came through the dirty window on the other side of the entrance.… The rear room had housed the horse and the front room the fodder. Both rooms showed signs of a hurried whitewashing. Spider webs, horse hair, and hay had been whitewashed with the walls. Huge spikes and nails stuck out all over the walls. A two-inch layer of dust covered the floor.… We heard someone crying in the next stall.” — Mine Okubo, Tanforan Assembly Center, San Bruno

“It was a terribly hot place to live. It was so hot that when we put our hands on the beadstead, the paint would come off! To relieve the pressure of the heat, some people soaked sheets in water and hung them overhead.” — Hatsumi Nishimoto, Pinedale Assembly Center, Fresno

“Meanest dust storms… and not a blade of grass. And the springs are so cruel; when those people arrived there they couldn’t keep the tarpaper on the shacks.” — Dorothea Lange, at Manzanar

“Without any hearings, without due process of law…, without any charges filed against us, without any evidence of wrongdoing on our part, one hundred and ten thousand innocent people were kicked out of their homes, literally uprooted from where they have lived for the greater part of their lives, and herded like dangerous criminals into concentration camps with barb wire fencing and military police guarding it.” — A statement by The Fair Play Committee, organized by Kiyoshi Okamoto at Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming, after Secretary of War Stimson announced on January 20, 1944 that nisei, formerly classed as “aliens not acceptable to the armed forces,” would be subject to the draft

This quote from General John L De Witt says it all

“The Japanese race is an enemy race and while many second and third generation Japanese born on American soil, possessed of American citizenship, have be come ‘Americanized,’ the racial strains are undiluted. …It, therefore, follows that along the vital Pacific Coast over 112,000 potential enemies, of Japanese extraction, are at large today. There are indications that these are organized and ready for concerted action at a favorable opportunity. The very fact that no sabotage has taken place to date is a disturbing and confirming indication that such action will be taken.” — General John L. DeWitt, head of the U.S. Army’s Western Defense Command

These people, these "enemies of the State" lost everything, homes businesses dignity....very similar to the action taken against Jews in Germany and yet very little is heard of this "crime". Granted the numbers weren't as huge but the losses and suffering were and still the people put up with it because they were Americans and still proud to be so.

So next time you or anyone you know think the temporary travel & immigration ban is wrong or that a particular race is being treated unfairly, when you think that you so deserve those reparations you keep harping on about for all your non-existent suffering, when you're marching and demonstrating for rights that you already have, spare a thought for these people who accepted their Governments' decisions and orders WITHOUT protest demonstration and violence and despite being lawful immigrants, all in the name of safety. Consider the alternative....would you like to see internment again?

Many innocent lives were disrupted, businesses ruined for supposedly just a hand full of spies and terrorist that the government believed existed. To hard to root them all out so capture everyone..

I live in a foreign country and I can only assume if the USA declared war tomorrow on my host country my life would be more than suddenly changed. No matter what I might say in my defense once a yank always a yank as it was with the Japanese after Pearl Harbor.

a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport

What I would like to see, is a nation which CLAIMS to be about freedom, liberty, and the articles of the Constitution upon which it was founded, a nation which spawned the man who suggested correctly, that those who are prepared to give away their liberty in exchange for security, deserve neither, actually behave like they believe in these concepts, rather than accepting the compromise they are being hoodwinked into.

Have a lovely day.

a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport

Thank you for this, fascinating and also very applicable to today, you are highlighting a crime against humanity which actually turned many former Patriotic American Japanese into American Hating Japanese.

TrueBrit well said indeed, but of course people and there leaders are always going to be two different tribe's, look at our country with it's right wing Tory's intent on harming the poorest and actually believing they are doing the right thing, what planet did they come from?.

Side note, we had internment camp's here in the UK and in Canada for Enemy Civilians but the most famous was the Isle of Man, the German civilian's whom were here and mostly not NAZI's and even Haters of the Nazi's lived what was regarded by many as a wonderful time on the Isle of Man, in fact to this day German's love the Isle of Man and often holiday there.

Those US internment camp's though look more like concentration camp's.

a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport

War is a nasty thing. Both sides went pretty far. And I don't think anyone learned much from it.

Link

We are violent creatures.

a reply to: TrueBrit

I'm afraid that nation died a long, long time ago and honestly these days, I cannot be certain it ever really existed.

a reply to: gottaknow

It was an ideal, never realized but one that was intended to be striven for and indeed I believe that the US has had periods of striving toward it and then falling away from it again so I would never say that nation is dead, it lives in your heart as a US citizen and is something for you to hold on dear to.

a reply to: LABTECH767

They most definitely were concentration camps with forced labour and armed guards etc. I think what gets to me the most is the attitudes of the time insofar as the humble acceptance by the Japanese-Americans and the sheer hatred and suspicion of those people by the Military.

Had the Japanese rebelled, protested demonstrated their plight who would have known or heard? Alternatively, the quite cruel practices at some of these camps were never known until much later either which is why Dorothea Lange agreed to the commission. The access to information that we have now makes hiding such things so much harder and again, alternatively, gives everyone and anyone a platform to plead their cause however trivial....social media = the need for acceptance & agreement

a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport

This was an awful time in American history, but must be a memory kept alive if we are ever to ensure that it is not repeated.

The Niihau Incident was one of the reasons that Japanese Americans were looked at as suspect immediately after the pearl harbor attack:

Niihau Incident 7-13 Dec 1941

ww2dbaseDuring the Pearl Harbor attack planning, Japanese naval leadership designated the Hawaiian island of Niihau as the designated location to land damaged aircraft that could not fly back to their carriers. A submarine was to be dispatched to pick up any downed pilots on that island. It was thought that the island was uninhabited when in fact it had a small population of 136. ww2dbase

On 7 Dec 1941, Japanese Navy pilot Airman 1st Class Shigenori Nishikaichi from carrier Hiryu, who had taken part in the second wave of the Pearl Harbor attack, crash-landed his damaged A6M2 Zero fighter on Niihau. When he came down, he was merely 20 feet from resident Hawila Kaleohano who was completely unaware of neither international politics between Japan and United States nor the Pearl Harbor attack that had just taken place. He took Nishikaichi's pistol and documents, and then helped him out of the damaged aircraft. Nishikaichi was treated with a party in the late afternoon, as he was a rare guest on this remote island. Meanwhile, the islanders sent for first-generation Japanese-American Ishimatsu Shintani to act as translator; Shintani was aware of the attack, and only exchanged a few words with Nishikaichi before leaving. The islands then sent for Yoshio Harada and his wife Irene, both second-generation Japanese-Americans. The Haradas were not aware of the attack beforehand, and Nishikaichi shared the news; the Haradas decided not to translate that portion to the islanders to prevent panic or anger. Nishikaichi asked Kaleohano to return the documents that Kaleohano had taken from him previously, but Kaleohano refused. ww2dbase

Later in the evening of 7 Dec, the islanders learned of the attack via radio, and only at this time Harada shared what Nishikaichi had told him earlier regarding the attack. The islanders decided that on the next day, when the island's owner Aylmer Robinson would have arrived for his weekly visit, Robinson would escort Nishikaichi to the proper authorities. On the next day, Robinson failed to arrive to the surprise of the islanders, nor did he visit in the following few days; unbeknownst to them, a ban on boat traffic had been implemented due to the state of war. Nishikaichi had stayed with the Haradas during those days (with guards outside the residence). ww2dbase

I am certainly not saying that the internment camps were justified, but to have Japanese Americans harboring the enemy immediately after the attack on Pearl harbor did not sit well with the authorities.

a reply to: butcherguy

I'm sure it didn't and the same could be said for those with knowledge of or harbouring those responsible for, say, The Boston Bombings or 9/11. With so many terrorist attacks and organisations currently resident and targetting the USA, perhaps internment should have been thought of way back in the days of Al Qaeda et al? Aren't the USA (and probably the rest of the world) now shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted?

Could it be said that as a result of the Japanese-Americans' internment, the military were correct and no terror attacks or espionage or war attacks occurred on American soil?

If it was considered a sensible solution then, could it be considered a sensible solution now? After all, ISIS or whoever is the latest flavour of the month, has openly declared war on the West, is this not a time for serious consideration of severe solutions? How would such a course of action go down with the population I wonder? I appreciate that the numbers today are vastly different from the 112,000 Japanese back in 1941 but it seems people are clamouring for a solution to their safety concerns, and yet are unwilling to accept the EO on immigration & travel.

These are kind of rhetorical questions but I'm interested, as an outsider, to Americans' views on this considering the outcry against a temporary inmigration/travel ban and also, is this ban even going to have any effect?

a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport

My answer to whether or not something like that would work to prevent terrorist attacks would be NO.
Even if we had a substantial problem with terror attacks in our country, I would not support US citizens being interned in camps, robbing them of their Constitutional rights to prevent it.

A dark time in our past, many innocent people effected. A Democrat president with to much power. With a pen and a phone as they say, he went to far. Little history lesson there that you don't hear much of.

a reply to: WUNK22

True and that's one of the points I was trying to make that this incident appears to have been passed over. I wonder how many Americans are even aware that the internments happened? People are quite happy to scream about black reparations for their 150yr old suffering or continue the reminders regarding the Holocaust but the Japanese prisoners (which is what they were) seem to have been forgotten. We have Black History Month...is there a Japanese History Month? We have Black Police Unions...is there a Japanese Police Union? This is unequality...you cannot have for one group without including ALL groups. If you're going to differentiate then it has to be across the board. If you're going to march for rights then it has to be for all people (even though all legal citizens of the USA already have the same rights). Making demands for just one specific group is singling them out to be special. Again, that's not equality its an attempt at making themselves superior. I don't believe some groups even want equality, they want more than and see it as their right because of past "hardships"

The continual separation of Americans will be their downfall. Until people start to accept that they are AMERICAN and not Afro American or Mexican American or whatever, the divisions will grow wider and deeper, propagated by social media and other platforms. I foresee self-imposed segregation at some point in the future.

They drew first blood..

a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport

Need that Justice League voice:


MEANWHILE IN NATZI GERMANY

or

MEANWHILE IN MAINLAND CHYNA

We can't proclaim to judge the actions of a people back then because the society, culture and its expectations were different from today.

The Japanese just attacked out of nowhere and American lives lost. This was the general citizen thinking. Of course a response was going to happen.

Are you thinking this has anything to do with the fact that another "group" will be subjected to internment camps for the sake of security and safey?

I have no ill wills to our American past for it is that which has molded us, the citizen.

a reply to: Arnie123

I'm not judging honestly....yes it was a different era and people had different upbringings and outlooks. They believed all Governments acted in the best interests of the people they represented, we of course, now know different. I think also the definition of what is suffering, bad, wrong etc has changed. People back then tended to put up with so much more than now.

Would internment camps work now? Highly doubt it, but in another way yes they would but the logistics in carrying out such an operation would outrank even Nazi Germany!

Is it not true that Muslim fundamentalists struck first in the USA and elsewhere? Is it not also true that factions have declared war on the West and in particular the USA? In which case, aren't Muslim-Americans as much of an enemy as the Japanese were perceived to be back in 1941?

In the eyes of the Military back then, the internment worked, however it has to be said that little or nothing is working against the threat of terrorism at the moment including military action & intervention

My point is that some of the things that sections of society are marching against/about and demanding pale into insignificance against other past atrocities which are conveniently ignored and only go to further propagate the impression of the Snowflake Millenium Society that we have created

Feds need to seize all mosque land and give each parcel of property to the local Muslim clergy of each mosque, as it is now only a handful of huge foreign entities with terror ties own 90% of all the mosques. Their policies are determined by 6 foreign Islamic scholars. This is why you see no public outrage by Muslim citizens of the US over terror, they are terrorized themselves into silence.

a reply to: TinfoilTP

I agree, few dare speak out. It goes against the Islamic code but then again so does murdering other Muslims. Its all a big mess. If we still had the attitudes of the 1940's how much easier would it all be to deal with?